aetherproof-verify

Offline, zero-trust verifier for AetherProof v1 signed manifests.

AetherProof is a cryptographic provenance system for AI-generated code. Every code artifact produced by an AetherProof-enabled pipeline is paired with a signed manifest containing the exact SHA-256 of the code, the prompt that generated it, the verifier gate evidence, the provider attestation, and the timestamp — all signed with an Ed25519 key and canonicalized per RFC 8785 (JCS).

This package lets any auditor, buyer, or third party verify those manifests entirely offline, without contacting any AetherProof server.

Install

pip install aetherproof-verify

All wheels published to PyPI are signed with PEP 740 attestations via PyPI Trusted Publishers (OIDC → Sigstore), bound to this package's public GitHub repository. See Supply-chain posture below.

Usage

You need three inputs to verify a manifest:

1. The manifest JSON — fetched from https://api.aetherlang.online/v1/manifests/{id}, or delivered out-of-band.
2. The public key — fetched from https://keys.aetherlang.online/keys.json and converted to PEM, or pinned out-of-band.
3. (Optional) The expected fingerprint — pinned from a trusted source. Belt-and-suspenders: catches silent key rotation.

CLI

aetherproof-verify check \
  --manifest ./manifest.json \
  --pubkey ./key.pem \
  --fingerprint sha256:f95a45bdc15db8f6ef61fa853366e860726aefe16474e943ebe79b132a17e022

Or via module invocation (equivalent):

python -m aetherproof_verify check --manifest ./m.json --pubkey ./k.pem

Library

from pathlib import Path
from aetherproof_verify.__main__ import check

rc = check(Path("manifest.json"), Path("key.pem"), expected_fpr=None)
assert rc == 0  # EXIT_OK

You can also import the Pydantic schema directly for custom integrations:

from aetherproof_verify.schema import AetherProofManifest

Exit codes

What this verifier does

1. Parses the manifest JSON (supports both bare manifest and the {request_id, manifest, canonical_bytes_len} envelope returned by api.aetherlang.online).
2. Schema-validates the payload against the frozen Pydantic v1 schema mirror (extra="forbid", frozen=True).
3. Fingerprint-gates — computes SHA-256 of the raw Ed25519 public key bytes and matches against the public_key_fpr embedded in the manifest. If --fingerprint is passed, additionally pin-checks against it.
4. Cryptographically verifies — reconstructs canonical bytes via RFC 8785 JCS over the manifest with the signature field removed, and verifies the Ed25519 signature.

No network calls. No telemetry. No side channels.

Trust boundaries

AetherProof operates four independent trust boundaries:

A compromise of any one boundary does not grant control of the others. Buyers should verify each independently.

Supply-chain posture

• Build provenance: every release wheel is built in GitHub Actions and attested via PEP 740 / Sigstore. The attestation binds the artifact digest to this repository's workflow identity.
• Trusted Publishers: publishing to PyPI uses OIDC token exchange (no long-lived API tokens). See PyPI docs.
• Reproducible builds: deterministic tarball and wheel construction; same source tree + same build environment → byte-identical artifact.
• Pinned dependencies: all transitive dependencies locked in pyproject.toml; cryptography>=46.0.7 (no known CVEs at release time).
• Zero-network verify: the CLI makes no network calls. Everything needed is passed as file paths.

Security model assumptions

• You trust your own Python interpreter and the cryptography library built against your OpenSSL.
• You obtained the public key through a channel you trust (HTTPS to keys.aetherlang.online with a modern CA root bundle, or out-of-band delivery).
• You obtained this package through PyPI with trusted-publisher attestation intact, or built it from source yourself after auditing.

If any of these assumptions fail, verification results are meaningless. Verify your chain of custody before relying on verification output.

Development

git clone https://github.com/contrario/aetherproof-verify
cd aetherproof-verify
python -m venv .venv && . .venv/bin/activate
pip install -e ".[dev]"
pytest

License

Apache License 2.0 — see LICENSE.

Security contact

Report vulnerabilities privately to security@aetherlang.online. Do not open public issues for suspected security flaws.